Real Andy Holt ➤
VOL. 56 NO. 16
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Read Betty Bean on page A-9
April 19, 2017
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FIRST WORDS Homey stay or animal house next door? By Nick Della Volpe The hot zoning topic these days is about the potential benefits and problems of Short Term Rentals (STR), more commonly referred to as AirBNBs. These include stays at a residence for a Della Volpe short weekend up to a 30-day rental. To judge by comments at the city’s April 4 neighborhood meeting to discuss the draft regulations, this is all the rage among new homesteaders interested in owning and rehabbing older neighborhood homes for such business. They argue that short-term rentals can help raise funds needed for the rehab, or to support a more leisurely lifestyle in semi-retirement. Tough questions need to be explored before Knoxville will have answers and a workable set of STR regulations. First among them is: What will this do to established single-family neighborhoods? Will this introduce a business element into bedroom communities, where residents count on quiet streets and the welcome nosiness of neighbors to keep tabs on strangers in the area and the potential for criminal activity brewing down the block? Does such commercial conduct portend the gradual breakdown of traditional zoning that separates business activity from residential – sort of mixed-use activity gone riot? Administration officials conducting the meeting also expressed concern that STR conversions may exacerbate the shortage of affordable longterm rental housing. The issues are more than theoretical. According to Deputy Mayor Bill Lyons and Codes Director Peter Ahrens, there are already over 200 AirBNBs operating in Knoxville ... an illegal use in single-family residential districts. Like Uber in the taxi/ride-share world, this idea is spreading. The administration is proposing a permit system to add a modicum of control to the present laissez-faire situation. The proposal currently requires homeowners to live in the home they are attempting to rent on a short-term basis (Type 1 permit). They would apply for a permit, pay a modest $70 fee, collect hotel and sales taxes, and be responsible to have someone on call within To page A-2
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Randy Mynatt
Greg Rutledge
Three selected for Halls Hall of Fame Induction, special centennial dinner is April 29
By Jake Mabe Scientist/scholar Randall “Randy” Mynatt, architect Greg Rutledge and retired Knox County Schools vocational teacher and wrestling pioneer Chris Vandergriff have been selected to be the 2017 inductees into the Halls High School Alumni Hall of Fame. The trio will be inducted as part of special concluding events for the Halls Schools Centennial at the annual alumni banquet Saturday, April 29, at Halls High School. Dr. Randall “Randy” Mynatt has spent more than 20 years researching obesity and diabetes. He graduated from Halls High in 1980 and earned a bachelor’s degree in cellular biology/
biochemistry in 1985, a master’s degree in nutrition sciences/biochemistry in 1989 and a doctorate in nutrition sciences/biochemistry in 1991, all from the University of Tennessee. Mynatt has worked at UT-Memphis, the Oak Ridge National Lab and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, La., where he currently holds the Douglas L. Manship Sr. Endowed Professorship in Diabetes and is Director of Transgenics at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. Greg Rutledge is an architect and principal at Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas + Company, which bills itself as “a leader in historic preservation.” Graduating from Halls High in 1977, Rutledge
earned a bachelor’s degree from UT in 1984. He has won a number of personal and project awards in historic preservation. Recent project awards include the Design Honor Award for Preservation: AIA Hampton Roads (Va.), Freemason Baptist Church renovation and addition in 2011, and the Mayor’s Civic Improvement Award for the city of Hampton, Va.’s American Theatre in 2010. Chris Vandergriff coached and taught at Halls High School for 31 years before retiring in 2012. A 1977 Halls High graduate, he was the school’s first Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) state wrestling champion in 1976 and a repeat
state champion in 1977. He was captain of the 1976 Halls High football team and was a four-year wrestling letterman at UT. After returning to teach at Halls High in 1981, Vandergriff helped pioneer wrestling as a high school sport at Halls High, in Knox County Schools and throughout East Tennessee youth athletics. He coached three TSSAA state champions – Shannon Sayne (1996 and 1998), Cody Humphrey (2002) and son John Vandergriff (2006). He was inducted into the Tennessee chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2007 and is an active member of the Halls Alumni Association. To page A-2
Hard-working CHS students need your help ested. That’s extraordinary in any classroom. By Carol Z. Shane It’s even more extraordinary when you conAndrew Turner, math teacher at Central High School, is talking to his class today sider that all of these kids have been in Amerabout “absolute value,” a mathematical con- ica less than one year. And that none of them cept in which all numbers are thought of as spoke English fluently when they arrived. “In the fall of 2014, we had about 50 Engpositive. Moving rapidly between his whiteboard and the individual students, he fires lish language learners,” says CHS principal off questions and offers help where it’s need- Michael Reynolds. Today, the school has over ed. Students occasionally fire answers right 130 such students. Though all attend English back, all the while laboring over worksheets language learning (ELL) classes, the proband calculators. They’re engaged and inter- lems of acclimating to a new culture go far
beyond language. And the kids are dealing with difficult subjects. “Chemistry’s hard enough for English speakers!” says Sarah Ramsey, CHS librarian. “And there’s science and math vocabulary specific to the subjects.” Many of the kids, says Turner, have had sporadic schooling. “One of my students was in a refugee camp in Tanzania for six years – she only got through second grade.” To page A-2
Family’s loss becomes a cause
By Betsy Pickle
Elizabeth Psar’s daughter, Julia, has been gone almost a year, but her short life is still an inspiration. “I have derived strength from her,” says Psar, a child-advocacy lawyer whose career and personal life are primarily focused on helping children. Psar and her husband, Rado, had a “perfect” life until December 2015, when their 2½ -year-old daughter, Julia Barbara, suddenly started having balance problems. “I thought she had an inner-ear infection,” says the attorney. “It never occurred to me that she had a brain tumor.” Psar was at Juvenile Court when her husband took their daughter to the pediatrician. She remembers thinking that Julia would have to have tubes put in her ears. “That was going to be the worst thing that we were going to have to do,” she says. “That was that Monday morning, and by the evening
they’re saying she has a brainstem tumor. And then the next day they’re saying she’s going to die.” The Psars learned that their little girl had DIPG – Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma – a brainstem tumor that is inoperable and incurable. The tumor usually strikes between the ages of 5 and 7, but it can be found in younger children and teenagers. The Psar family, including son Vasil William, now 5, went to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital just before Christmas 2015 to have a port put in for the medications she would have to have. They returned home for the holiday because the doctor said that it would probably be Julia’s last Christmas. The four returned to St. Jude in January 2016. Julia had to endure a grueling regimen of radiation, chemotherapy and experimental drugs. Steroids were part of her treatment and, Psar says, had a horrific effect. Julia bore it all
bravely, but: “She just never smiled anymore, and she was a child who smiled all the time. The steroids just altered her so dramatically.” There were times when Julia seemed slightly better. But during a Make-a-Wish trip to Slovakia to visit Rado’s family, she started experiencing nausea again. Julia died in her sleep on May 17, 2016, exactly one month short of her third birthday. A few months later, Elizabeth and Rado started the Julia Barbara Foundation to raise awareness of DIPG and raise funds for research. Last month, state Sen. Doug Overbey of Maryville and state Rep. Jason Zachary of Knoxville sponsored a resolution to make May 17 DIPG Awareness Day in Tennessee. The Julia Barbara Foundation is hosting a Gala Celebrating DIPG Children at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 20, at the Women’s Basketball
Hall of Fame, 700 Hall of Fame Drive. Tickets, $60, are available on eventbrite.com. The Chillbillies, whose lineup includes Juvenile Court Judge Tim Irwin, will perform. Psar says the entire Juvenile Court team has been very supportive of her family and the foundation. It’s appropriate that the event is taking place at the Hall of Fame. One of the most high-profile DIPG victims is the late college basketball player Lauren Hill, who was inducted into the hall. Hill passed away in April 2015, but her foundation has raised millions for DIPG research and awareness. Psar says the incidence of DIPG is low – about 400 children are living with the diagnosis right now – but “that doesn’t include the children that die from it that nobody catches. It’s a very invasive tumor. It’s like a weed in your garden – it grows so quickly.” To page A-2 2704 Mineral Springs Ave. Knoxville, TN 37917 Ph. (865) 687-4537
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